RisingWave alternative — RisingWave vs Skippr

RisingWave is a Postgres-compatible streaming database. You create a CDC source (postgres-cdc on logical replication, also MySQL, MongoDB, SQL Server), materialized views in SQL, and sinks. Iceberg sink supports upsert with a primary key, REST catalog, S3 warehouse, equality deletes, Merge-on-Read and Copy-on-Write, and compaction. Kafka is optional. RisingWave's own CDC-to-Iceberg write-up claims exactly-once via Iceberg commits. Self-hosted is Apache-2.0; you pay the cluster. RisingWave Cloud Basic is 0.227 USD per RWU-hour (7-day trial, up to 64 cores). Pro is hosted, BYOC, or BYOK8s, quote. Premium add-ons include SQL Server CDC, Snowflake and BigQuery sinks, and managed Iceberg. This is not Iceberg ∪ WAL. Serving state lives in RisingWave; Iceberg is a sink.

Skippr is an open Streamhouse you run as one Rust binary. Write skippr.yml (or the same thing in Python), discover, sync. You query live state over Iceberg ∪ WAL, and the history is ordinary Iceberg in your bucket. No RWU. ELT into a warehouse is one path, not the product.

Feature	Skippr	RisingWave
Deploy	Single Rust binary, your VPC or on-prem	Streaming cluster, or RisingWave Cloud / BYOC
Schema	In-stream evolution, sibling columns	Postgres SQL DDL. Premium lists automatic evolution
Storage	Open Iceberg on Parquet you own	RisingWave state plus optional Iceberg sink
CDC	Log-based; fails closed if the dest cannot honour	Built-in postgres-cdc (and MySQL/Mongo/SQL Server). No Kafka required
Query	skipprd query on Iceberg ∪ WAL; history in any Iceberg engine	Postgres wire on MVs. Iceberg is after the sink
Pricing	Free self-hosted engine	Apache-2.0 self-host. Cloud from 0.227 USD/RWU-hr.

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What RisingWave is good at

Postgres CDC plus SQL materialized views, with an Iceberg upsert sink, without Debezium and Kafka in the middle. That is the product. Postgres wire on the views is why app teams can keep psql. If the job is "streaming SQL we query now, Iceberg we land later," that is a real product.

Where the job is wider

RisingWave is a streaming database. It is not Iceberg ∪ WAL. Live SQL is on RisingWave state. Iceberg is a sink with a PK for upsert. Failover may need a new replication slot on the promoted primary. Compaction is a RisingWave/Iceberg job, not a WAL you open with Trino mid-flight.

RWU math is the ops on Cloud. Premium connectors and managed Iceberg sit above Basic. Skippr will not be a Postgres-wire MV engine. Skippr also will not replace a RisingWave cluster that already serves those views.

If the job is "RisingWave streaming SQL we already staff," RisingWave is the narrower tool. If the job is live SQL on Iceberg you run, that is Skippr's job, not RisingWave's Iceberg sink.

Getting started

Install skipprd from the install guide, or pip install skippr. The three tabs write the same skippr.yml. Then discover, sync, and query.

YAML

skippr:
  workspace: analytics
  skipprd_el_storage_mode: local

pipelines:
  orders:
    data_source: data_sources.app_db
    data_sink: data_sinks.lake

data_sources:
  app_db:
    Postgres:
      host: db.internal
      user: skippr_reader
      password: ${APP_DB_PASSWORD}
      database: app
      tables: [orders, customers]
      cdc_mode: snapshot_then_cdc

data_sinks:
  lake:
    AthenaIceberg:
      warehouse: s3://my-iceberg-warehouse/
      glue_database_name: analytics
      athena_workgroup_name: primary
      athena_results_s3_bucket: my-athena-results
      region: us-east-1
    schema_sink: schema_sinks.lake_schema

schema_sinks:
  lake_schema:
    AthenaIceberg:
      warehouse: s3://my-iceberg-warehouse/
      glue_database_name: analytics
      athena_workgroup_name: primary
      athena_results_s3_bucket: my-athena-results
      region: us-east-1

CLI

skipprd --workspace analytics --storage-mode local connect data-source postgres \
  --pipeline orders \
  --name app_db \
  --host db.internal \
  --user skippr_reader \
  --password '${APP_DB_PASSWORD}' \
  --database app \
  --tables orders \
  --tables customers \
  --cdc-mode snapshot_then_cdc

skipprd connect data-sink athenaiceberg \
  --pipeline orders \
  --name lake \
  --warehouse s3://my-iceberg-warehouse/ \
  --glue-database-name analytics \
  --athena-workgroup-name primary \
  --athena-results-s3-bucket my-athena-results \
  --region us-east-1

skipprd connect schema-sink athenaiceberg \
  --pipeline orders \
  --name lake_schema

Python

from skippr import (
    Config,
    DataSinkAthenaIceberg,
    DataSourcePostgres,
    DataSourcePostgresSourceCdcMode,
    EnvRef,
    LocalStorage,
    Pipeline,
)

cfg = Config().workspace("analytics").storage(LocalStorage())

app_db = cfg.data_source(
    "app_db",
    DataSourcePostgres(
        host="db.internal",
        user="skippr_reader",
        password=EnvRef("APP_DB_PASSWORD"),
        database="app",
        tables=["orders", "customers"],
        cdc_mode=DataSourcePostgresSourceCdcMode.SNAPSHOTTHENCDC,
    ),
)

lake = cfg.data_sink(
    "lake",
    DataSinkAthenaIceberg(
        warehouse="s3://my-iceberg-warehouse/",
        glue_database_name="analytics",
        athena_workgroup_name="primary",
        athena_results_s3_bucket="my-athena-results",
        region="us-east-1",
    ),
    schema_sink="lake_schema",
)

cfg.pipeline("orders", Pipeline(data_source=app_db, data_sink=lake))
cfg.save("skippr.yml")

export APP_DB_PASSWORD='your-postgres-password'
skipprd discover --pipeline orders
skipprd sync --pipeline orders --once
skipprd query "SELECT count(*) FROM analytics.orders"

Which to choose

Choose RisingWave if you want a Postgres-wire streaming database with an Iceberg sink, and serving the MV is the job.

Choose Skippr if you want one binary, live SQL on Iceberg ∪ WAL, and files that stay yours. Skippr will not run a RisingWave cluster.

Install from Install. Connector and query reference live in Developer Docs. For optional onboarding in your VPC, Enterprise Jumpstart or Contact.